Saint X

When Claire is only seven years old, her eighteen year-old sister Alison disappears and is found dead when their family takes a vacation on a Caribbean island. This book takes place mostly in NYC where Claire, now called Emily, is a young adult working at her first job. By happenstance, she runs into one of the men from the island who was accused of killing her sister, but was not convicted due to lack of evidence. She befriends this man to learn more about what happened to her sister, to the detriment of her own mental health. The initial impression of this book was that it would be a fast paced thriller with a stunning conclusion. However, it is more a commentary on unresolved grief, the assumptions that are made based on race and show more class, and how one event can shatter the lives of so many. It could still be categorized as a mystery. I found the multiple points of view valuable in understanding the characters and events. Even though, at times, Saint X did not move quickly, it was still a compelling and interesting read. show less

This novel starts with a sadly common trope: beautiful white teen on a Caribbean vacation with her wealthy family goes missing after a night of debauchery and is found dead. But what spins out are remarkable stories from beautiful and talented Alison's much younger sister Claire and from Clive, a resort worker suspected of Alison's murder. Packed with truth about the doubts and guilt of rich white people in contrast to the islanders who are struggling to get by, there's such wisdom and perceptiveness from Claire, as she moves to NYC years after Alison's death and is picked up in a cab by Clive, the hotel worker who had migrated and is now living in a hand-to-mouth immigrant's nightmare, haunted by the son he left behind and his memories show more of Alison's last night. Claire single-mindedly stalks Clive and her obsession with getting to the truth, along with his acceptance of his limited life, bring about a surprising denouement and a pleasing coda. It's the type of book you fall into so easily, with brilliant physical descriptions of beach and city, and the insights of the characters into their own weaknesses and inadequacies are wonderfully unraveled. Class struggle is deeply probed in this exceptional and memorable novel.

Quotes: "During my first few years in New York I was living in the whimsical elective poverty that is so common among the children of affluence."

"My entire identity from that first moment when they named me - it's not about anything. It's like our only culture is this very nice life we have."

"There's this really slippery slope between being glad you have something and thinking you deserve it."

"As she watches the island pass by, she is filled with disquiet at her inability to parse the things she sees. Is this place in the process of being built, or unbuilt or rebuilt or none of these - maybe something is happening here that she lacks the experience to comprehend."

"She has been born into a family whose wealth places them at the tippy top of that country. It is a disgusting amount of luck. you could never be forgiven for such good fortune."

"What is gratitude, really, but revenge for a system that gives and deprives at random. No, not at random. The non-randomness is exactly the point."

"Don't ever try to out-talk a woman. They store the right language up so it's ready to throw down when the times comes."

"Here's the thing about women: if the world was only women, there wouldn't be language at all. They don't need it." show less

Saint X asks what happens to the family of one of those beautiful young white women whose death becomes a national unsolved mystery. It opens with an affluent family spending spring break on the luxurious Saint X, a Caribbean Island that caters to tourism. They are happy. Alison is a freshman in college and Clare is her much younger and quieter sister. Alison has a soft spot for Clare while she is sharply individuating from her parents in the typical manner of any recent graduate. But then she disappears on their last night and is found dead on a nearby island. Her death is never explained but provides fodder for the scandal mills on TV, in books, magazines, and the internet.

We come back to Clare as an adult who goes by her middle name show more Emily. The family relocated across the country after Alison’s death, but Clare/Emily goes back to the East Coast after college, working as an assistant editor in a New York publishing house. She lives a quiet life but that ends when she sees Clive Richardson, one of the men suspected in Allison’s death. She begins following him, then befriends him, all without identifying who she is.

I loved the thoughtful and rich language of Saint X. I loved how descriptive it is. It is very interior. It all Emily/Claire reflecting, remember, imagining, dreaming. I also love how equivocal it is. Claire thinks she is seeking an answer to the mystery of her sister’s death, but really she wants answers to her sister’s mysteries, her personality, and what Claire does and does not remember, what is real and what is not. I love that we do not get an answer to every question. Normally, the whole point is answering the questions, but when a book can succeed brilliantly by not answering every answer, that is mastery.

I received an ARC of Saint X from the publisher through Shelf Awareness.

Saint X at Celadon Books

https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2020/03/12/saint-x-by-alexis-schaitk... show less

Excellent literary fiction and part mystery/thriller. The title refers to a fictional Caribbean island that is also the 1995 site of an unsolved murder (?)/death of a beautiful, promising teenage girl. The omniscient narration that starts the novel has a unique view from above as a traveler would approach in an airplane then zeroes in to the exact resort and the family vacation that is about to become their worst nightmare. It's compelling and gives the impression of 'there but for the grace of God...' it could be any generic family. But it is the Thomas family - the parents aren't even named, but are identified by their roles, and the two daughters, Alison: 18, freshman at Princeton, beautiful, confident and trouble-seeking ("Maybe show more part of what it means to be eighteen is to feel perpetually caught between the intensity of one's desires and the dawning of the self that judges them." (57) and Claire: 7, shy, withdrawn, overshadowed by but enamored with her big sister. Since the girls are sharing a room, Claire alone is privy to her sister's late night comings and goings, but she is so naive, and so trusting that she doesn't tattle. That is one possible mistake. On their last night, Alison does not come home at all and when her body is found, her parents insist it is murder and 2 of the resort workers (Clive and Edwin) are blamed though eventually freed and the case is never solved. Fast-forward 20-some years and Claire, who goes by Emily is living and working in NYC, hops into a cab and realizes the driver is Clive. This is the heart of the book. She begins to stalk him and eventually befriends him, waiting for the moment he will slip up and reveal something crucial to the case that clears up the whole thing. To say Claire/Emily is unstable at this point is a bit of an understatement, but the author does a great job of building sympathy and the traumatic effect Alison's death had on Claire at such a young age cannot be underestimated. All she has are shadowy memories and impressions. She asks "What is the neurological experience of a person? When you think of someone, what sound, image, scent is summoned?...Alison is flowers and white teeth" (88) Eventually Emily's pursuit of Clive comes to a head and she gets some answers, but not the ones she wanted. They are not the ones I expected either, which made for good reading. In addition to the compelling plot, there are issues here too: the dynamics of vacationing in "poor" countries where the economy is so tourist-dependent, class and race, creating a meaningful life and friendship so deep it becomes sacrificial. All of this is seamlessly integrated as is the narrative viewpoints from a variety of characters, even if they only contribute a brief reflection showing we are all touched by proximity to tragedy and make sense of it in different ways.
Notable quotes: "To mourn a girl with infinite futures was to mourn infinitely." (57)
"We see so little of people. We forget how much submerged darkness there is around us at every moment. We forget until we are forced to remember." (91)
"Clive Richardson was a man hiding in plain sight, drawing no attention and leaving no trace upon the minds of others. He was an island, isolated and impenetrable." (144)
"What I can say is this: While the details of this story may be products of my imagination, I trust its broad strokes and core themes. I believe that for my sister, our family vacation coincided with one of those brief, intense intervals of identity formation we all experience from time to time in our lives. She arrived at Indigo Bay at that critical moment when the girl cuts herself on the shards of her own reflection and watches, baffled and thrilled as the blood begins to flow." (203) show less

This debut novel was a remarkable and unique character study on the harsh distinctions of race and class, the media obsession with dead white girls, survivor guilt, and the often ignored victims & bystanders of a tragedy. We not only hear Claire’s story, we also see through the eyes of the men accused of the crime and other vacationers there at the time. I loved these multiple viewpoints, as I also did the autopsy report and the chapter about the made-for-tv-movie about Allison’s, and felt they brought even more to the story. ⁣
The author wrote very vivid descriptions of Saint X, and of New York as well that made me believe I could feel the warm island breezes, and the harsh New York air. When Claire became obsessed in her quest show more and later withdrawn, I alternately understood her pursuit and yet wanted to yell at her to “snap out of it!”⁣ show less

Solid melodrama showing the consequences of the death of a young woman on the people around her. It's not a mystery or a crime whodunit; there is an answer but it's not one that will satisfy the mystery reader. It's more existential than that. Schaitkin explores race, class and delusion in this well-written, compelling story.

7-year-old Claire and her older sister, Alison, are on vacation with their parents on the Caribbean island of Saint X. On their last evening there, Alison disappears. Days later, her body is found and the police arrest two local men, Clive and Edwin. Clive and Edwin are soon released as there is not enough evidence to hold them. So the family comes home. Years later when Claire is an adult and living in New York City, she runs into Clive. Claire becomes obsessed with learning the truth of what happened to Alison and she starts to follow Clive around the city. She’s sure that someday he’ll make a mistake and the truth will be known.

This is the type of book that, while it tells a very interesting story, it’s not the story itself show more that makes it special but rather the telling of the story. The author has a wonderful way of bringing her reader right into the hearts and minds of her characters. Each of the characters has their own tale to tell and even the characters who only make a brief appearance have their chance to share their views. There are a lot of layers to this intelligent book and I absolutely loved it. It’s a slow moving, beauty of a book, languid like a warm Caribbean beach, but keeps lovingly pulling you along.

Keep an eye on this debut author. She’ll be going far for sure!

This book was given to me by the publisher in return for an honest review. show less